Inventor who shocked tech world stumped by 43-year patent delay
Found on Chicago Tribune on Sunday, 02 March 2014
Hyatt said he's been waiting that long for a U.S. ruling on whether his electronic signal to control machinery should be granted a patent.
"It's totally unconscionable," said Brad Wright, a patent lawyer with Banner & Witcoff in Washington who specializes in computer-related applications and isn't involved in Hyatt's case. "The patent office doesn't want to be embarrassed that they might issue a broad patent that would have a sweeping impact on the technology sector. Rather than be embarrassed, they're just bottling it up."
Electronic signals control pretty much every machinery, unless you're running only steampunk hardware. This patent is so ridiculously broad that it should have been rejected the minute it was requested. Another fine example why the patent system has become usless and now is just a giant roadblock for progress.